The weekly messenger. [volume] (St. Martinsville [i.e. St. Martinville] La.) 1886-1948, 1887-10-08
THE SIGNAL SERVICE.
Electric Storms in the Rocky Noun
tains Much to Impress One.
From the st. Louis Globe

Sergeant Luther NJ. Dey, now in the
Signal Service in Philadelphia, spent
wear for the Government ut Pixies Peak.
His experiences there must be as inter-
cstinp to scientists rs to the general pub
lie, for they are unlike any ever pub
lished about that monarch of American
mountains.
81 was in the Signal Service house
on the summit when lightning tele-
graphed itself up the mountain and
struck the building" he said recently.
1.-The fire was grounded five feet from
the west wall. The bolt plowed fur
row from the end of the wire to the stone
wall, two feet thick, and tore out of it
hole eighteen inches square. Then it
flashed around the room, melted and
ruined some of our instruments, and
went out of the east window. The air
seemed full of electricity ut the time,
but not one OF us was injured. D..
"Not long aftcrward saw the most
wonderful electrical storm l have ever
heard of. The atmosphere had appear
ed loaded with electricity all after
noon. There was singing sound IN
the air, as if the whole universe was
great hive of bees. When the sun went
down 1 saw thousand Jets of electric
flame rising from the wire down the
mountain. 1 went outdoors My hair
rose up. My mustache poked into my
nose. 1 took my hands from my pock-
cts and electric flames two inches long
started from each finger tip. When l
held them down the flames disappeared.
1 walked up and down with my hands
in the air as excited as child. When
1 came under the telegraph wire The
flames went ont where l was and disap-
peared before and behind me. This
storm lasted half an hour"
But from Sergeant Dey's talk there
are real dangers on the mountain. Once
in winter time he descended the great
crater for Pixies Peak is an extinct vol
cano. Half way down the side of the
crater he slipped, and in moment shot
several hundred feet along the slippery
surface of loose snow, saving himself by
catching on bowlder. The snow was
very deep, and far down the mountain
he saw tracks of mountain lions. After
hours of awful suffering and struggling
in snowbanks, he reached the trail and
got back to the station.
''The house has walls two feet Thick"
continued Sergeant Dey. "There arc
several room-one for instruments, one
for sleeping, and two used as storeroom
and kitchen, respectively. The roof is
anchored by great cables, to brace it
against the wind, which is terrible,
sometimes blowing 100 miles an hour.
Six months provisions and six months
supply of wood are taken up every fall
from timber line. The Peak is ten
, miles from Manitou and seventeen from
. Colorado Springs. The view from the
station was magnificent. We could see
! the smoke from Denver, the city OF
Pueblo, and the trains on the plains
/ twenty miles away, very sclearly. We
could see in Old Mexico the Spanish
peaks, capped with snow, and glistening
| like knights in armOr, $50 miles away.
/ More than Il dozen times we have look
| ell far, far down below us at thunder
| storms raging in a sea of black clouds.
LET me tell you word of poor Capt.
Creyin. He was friend of Gen. Ha-
zen, and came West for his health. He
was Manx man and on the Peak in the
| Government service. The doctors say
he died of boil in the lungs-a very
rare disease. Life on the Peak is lone
". There are few birds and animals.
Bears ale seen occasionally, and vul-
lures. and the miserable, glastly-lOOk-
ing Rocky Mountain maGpies and
, thrushes. 1t SHOWS every month in the
year. Once in n while royal eagle
scars over the range. The atmosphere
IS 50 rare up thccc tina. the men OF the
Signal Office have 20 socad one month
on the summit, Il. 30 feet above the sea,
and then one month 1000 feet lover, ut
Colorado Springs"
Pixies Peak is the highest mountain
in the world on which civilized men I've
q II IL, ,....,,,1